Part 2: Jonathan said we were just like Apple, but very different from Microsoft. Microsoft had turned software creation into a factory process. Three people would visit him with a 1.0 product who seemed to be product managers. They took notes furiously as he tried the product, which was never any good. As he pointed out the things he didn’t like they would enthusiastically say, “thank you Jonathan!” And they’d dig for more details.

They’d come back in a year with a much-improved 2.0 that was still not ready for prime time and the process would repeat. Finally they’d return with a 3.0 and it was good enough to get respect and market share.

Apple, on the other hand, would send its creator. He or she wanted to build something insanely great on the first try that would change the world. Their mission was to get Jonathan to love it. It was hard for him to give feedback because the creator would get ever more defensive and deflated if Jonathan tried. After awhile it was too uncomfortable and he stopped trying.

I've always wondered how Steve took that answer, because it described himself so well.

Great series of posts, Chris! At Microsoft, we used to say that “the #1 feature is shipping”. It wasn’t always good for customers, but it sure did let msft exploit their user base to quickly learn and develop a decent product.